Raskin Withdraws Fed Nomination After Manchin Announces Opposition
Lisa Bloom Raskin, nominated by President Biden to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and as its Vice Chair of Supervision, has withdrawn her nomination after Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) announced that he would not vote to confirm her. With no support from Republicans in the evenly-split chamber, Manchin’s opposition all but doomed her ability to be confirmed.
In a statement released on Monday, Manchin said that Raskin’s “previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs.”
“I have come to the conclusion that I am unable to support her nomination to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board,” Manchin said.
Raskin’s nomination was met with criticism from GOP lawmakers who said her focus on climate change was a threat to financial stability. Additionally, they criticized her position on the board of Reserve Trust, a Colorado-based non-depository startup fintech company that was granted a Fed master account in 2018. Raskin joined the Board of Reserve Trust after leaving her previous position as a Fed Governor and, later, as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee then boycotted the vote to advance her out of committee and send her nomination to the Senate floor. The Washington Post noted that in her letter to Biden, Raskin criticized the Senate confirmation process, saying it was “stuck in this polarized condition.”
“The Biden administration should nominate in her place an individual who will focus exclusively on implementing the Fed’s statutory mandates of stable prices, full employment, and supervision of bank holding companies,” Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said in a statement following Raskin’s withdrawal.
CNBC noted that many Democrats have argued that the GOP’s concerns are covering the real reason they oppose Raskin’s nomination, because of her research into how financial institutions could pull lending away from fossil fuel producers. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, expressed his disdain at her withdrawal.
“The American people will be denied a thoughtful, experienced public servant who was ready to fight inflation, stand up to Wall Street and corporate special interests, and protect our economy from foreign cyber attacks and climate change,” he said in a statement. “I implore my Republican colleagues to do their jobs, show up to vote ‘yes’ on the remaining, eminently qualified Federal Reserve nominees.”
